


Annoyed At First Sight

by oopsthisisqueertoo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged up characters, Alternate Universe-University, Demisexual Lance, Friends to Lovers, Keith’s parents are dead, M/M, Power Bottom Keith, Profanity, Shiro is a grandma, Strangers to enemies, Voltron is cartoon/graphic novel, angel hunk, enemies to fake friends, fake friends to friends, homosexual keith, just another coffee shop AU, nonbinary pidge, petty af Lance, probably, smol sex dream, so cannon Hunk, step-sibling Shiro and Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-08-29 20:33:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16751083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oopsthisisqueertoo/pseuds/oopsthisisqueertoo
Summary: Lance has a terrible encounter with a Mullet wearing a power bottom pin on his jacket. To his horror, the Mullet happens to work at the coffee shop Lance goes to later. To the Mullet's horror, Lance pretends to be friends with Mullet to save him from being fired. Now, Lance is set on annoying Keith until death to punish him for offending him. And then Lance falls for him.(A very late) Part of Asexual Awareness Week 20gayteen





	Annoyed At First Sight

**Author's Note:**

> [I did this one because none of you cowards would do it for me.](https://oopsthisisqueertoo.tumblr.com/search/power%20bottom)

_Late. I’m late. Professor Ash is going to kill me!_

Lance makes a mad dash to his class, late for the third time already that semester after oversleeping yet again because he’d stayed up too late playing D&D with some other people in the college dorms. And Hunk. Always Hunk.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Lance yells to himself as he takes a sharp turn around a corner, instantly colliding with another body.

He falls hard on his back and hits his head on the sidewalk. Whoever was rude enough to be in his way falls hard on top of him.

Hands fall to either side of him. Their ass is resting on his crotch, not that it mattered since it didn’t do anything for him, but the nerve of it still bothered him. Sexual harassment, much? It was a nice ass though. Pert. Whoever it was, worked out. He could tell that much without opening his eyes.

“Hey!” He groans, rubbing his eyes open to see a beautiful man on top of him. Except he had a mullet. Lance was too late to class to even begin to deal with that. He didn’t know if he even had enough years left in his life to talk enough shit about having a mullet and why in the history of human beings that no one, ever should have a mullet. “At least take me out to dinner before you try to hop on this dick and make me even later for class!”

“You’re the one who ran into me!” The guy grits out, eyes still closed from the fall.

Lance shoots him an annoyed glare before he notices a button on the guys jacket. It’s a heart, but it has a line in it so it’s mocking a butt. In the middle of it, it says “power bottom”.

 _So he’s one of those guys_.

“I see you’re trying to live up to your button there,” Lance flicks the button on the guys jacket, “but nuh uh, no thanks. I am _not_ interested. Now get off me before I miss class completely.”

The guy’s eyes snap open to reveal dark almost purplish eyes. They reminded Lance of galaxies. They were perfect color to be plucked out and made into jewelry. At least it’d save those eyes from having a mullet attached to the same head. “Like I’d ever want to have sex with your annoying ass. You can’t even make it to class on time. There’s no way you’d be able to top me.”

_You’re right there, you asshole._

“Oh, I’m a hell of a good lover!” _Not that I would know_. “You’d be lucky to have me in bed!”

The boy smirks and wiggles around on lances lap. “Are you sure about that? I’ve been sitting here for awhile now and you’re not even hard.”

“My dick can’t get past your mullet.” Lance sneers back, propping himself up on his elbows. “We have standards.”

“Standards that can’t even get you to class on time? I bet your grades are shit too.” The boy gives a groan as he rubs his neck. “Admit it. You’re just impotent.”

“You’re impotent!” Lance screeches back, the insult being too close to how he felt about himself.

“Good one.” The boy sneers before finally climbing off lances lap. He doesn’t offer Lance a hand to help him up. He just goes back to casually walking and playing with his phone in the direction he’d originally been going.

“What an asshole.” Lance murmurs to himself before getting up. His ass and head hurt from the fall and are steadily throbbing to remind him of his encounter with The Mullet™. He’s over ten minutes late and it’s not even worth still going to class at this point. He’d just get yelled at even more for disrupting and wouldn’t be marked as present. He blames that damn mullet for another absence added to his attendance. That professor took off points for absences, too. His grade was already precarious before his absences were deducted.

He decides to hit a nearby coffee shop because what else is there to do on campus for the next hour, especially when you’re already sleep deprived? There’s no way he was going to spend that time studying. That was only for emergencies. Like finals or being threatened by his parents that “if you don’t pick your grades up, I’m going to pull you all the way back home by your ear”. College was for living life, not studying. That was adult stuff.

He’s all sunshine by the time he enters a nearby coffee shop. Class and The Mullet™ have long been forgotten. He walks up to the counter, not paying much attention to the barista since there’s a new fall menu. Once decided, he plasters his signature McClain smile on his face and looks toward the barista on the counter to order.

Except the one person he didn’t want to see is behind the counter. Well. The one person that wasn’t his professor whose class he was entirely missing right now. Or that one girl who said his ears were hideous. Actually, no. She was beautiful even though she was mean.

The Mullet™ was standing behind the counter looking unamused. The McClain signature smile vanishes like free food at a college event; rumored to exist but was hardly ever experienced unless you knew the right people and came ungodly early.

“Did you follow me here because you finally thought of a good comeback?” He taps the computer screen, face devoid of emotion.

“Uhhh. No.” Lance rolls his eyes. “I came here for coffee since _somebody_ fell on me while I was going to class and made me too late to show up, so now I have time to waste before my next class.”

“Have you heard of studying?”

“Har, har. Just make me some damn coffee.”

“Whatever. What do you want?”

A smirk flickers on Lance’s lips. “I’m sooo glad you asked. I’ll have medium latte, but I want a large cup. Do 20 pumps of vanilla, 20 pumps of hazelnut, with whole milk, at 190 degrees, and with extra whip and caramel drizzle. Make sure you write my name legibly, this cup is about to be Insta famous.

The guy stands at the counter with a large cup in hand. One eyebrow is raised and the marker hovers over the cup. “Are you trying to kill yourself with that much sugar or do you want me to do it for you with such an annoying order?”

“Little bit of both, to be honest.” Lance shrugs. “Seems like death would be much easier than finishing college.”

“Whatever. Name for your order?”

“Lance. Don’t forget it. It’s what you’ll be calling out later.”

The guy sits the cup down roughly on the counter and stares blandly at Lance. “Do you want me to spit in your drink?”

“What’s the matter? Those jokes were okay earlier, but now they’re not?”

“Just pay and go.”

Lance forks over the money for his drink and goes to sit where he can watch Grumpy Mullet™ make his drink just in case he does decide to spit in it or do something much worse like use sugar free syrup.

He gets his drink a few minutes later, looking untampered with and like sugary death. He tentatively takes a sip while staring daggers at the guy, who’s coolly ignoring his existence.

“Whatever, asshole.” Lance grumbles before moving to one of the more comfortable chairs and kicking up his feet. He still had time before the next class and he was about to make the most of it by taking selfies and posting them on all his social media accounts. Only validation from strangers could save today. And maybe free food.

He’s only about sixteen photos in when he hears someone approach him and clear their throat. Already rolling his eyes, he turns to see who’s rude enough to bother his photo shoot. Of course, it’s the grumpy barista.

“Does this look like your home? Get your nasty feet off our table. And there’s no photos allowed, so you can stop being so vapid.”

Lance is about two seconds from throwing his latte at this guy, but then he remembers how much he paid for said latte and rethinks it. But _just_ barely. “You don’t have to be such a dick about it. There’s literally nobody else here.”

“That doesn’t matter. No one wants to eat off a table after seeing someone’s feet on them.”

Lance jumps up, shouting. “Well maybe you should clean your tables then!”

“I’m trying but your nasty feet are on my table!” The mullet shouts back.

“Keith!” Another voice shouts from the counter.

Both of them snap their heads toward the voice. There’s a beefcake of a man with a scar across his nose frowning intensely at The Mullet™.

“Is there something wrong?” He walks from behind the counter to reveal a prosthetic arm and an even more muscular body.

_I’m not even remotely attracted to you, but I’d like for you to pound me into the wall._

The Mullet™, now known as Keith, gives an annoyed groan. “I was just explaining to our valued customer here,” he uses both his arms to indicate Lance, “that we don’t allow feet on our tables or photos inside the shop.”

Beefcake™ places his hands on his hips and raises an eyebrow. “And you were explaining these rules by yelling so loud that I could hear you in the back?”

Lance shrinks in his seat. He wanted Mullet™ to be annoyed, and to cut the mullet off, but that was beside the point, but he didn’t want him to get fired because Lance was being a dick. Beefcake™ was obviously his manager or the owner and wasn’t going to let this kind of behavior fly. He was the lawful good type of guy, through and through. Lance needed Beefcake™ for his D&D campaign.

So, he did what any hero of the people would do: be a bigger man while pissing The Mullet™ off and not burning the potential bridge of having another D&D player.

He jumps out of his seat and wraps an arm around The Mullet™, who flinches at contact, “I’m no customer. I’m Keefy-boy’s friend!” He flashes the McClain smile. “I was just giving him a hard time since I’ve never been here before.”

“Friend?” Beefcake™ echoes back, arms falling from hips and mouth following suit.

“Yeah!” Lance beams, still dripping sweetness and all the innocence that got him out of trouble as a kid. Well. Usually got him out of trouble. There was only so many times you could feign innocence before your mother figured it out and beat your ass so hard it hurt for a week. “We ran into each other on campus recently and hit it off.”

Beefcake’s™ face contorts into the most ridiculous smile Lance has ever seen. It’s almost like Keith has never had a friend before and Beefcake™ is some overly doting parent. All his manly man aura has dissipated. Lance is getting ready for him to clap his hands together and treat them to cake.

“That’s great!” He grins over at Lance before clapping a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “You didn’t tell me you made a friend.”

“Oh. Uh. Well. It’s a pretty recent development.” Keith trails off, not looking him in the eye.

“Oh! I’m Shiro, by the way.” He holds his prosthetic arm out to shake hands. “I’m Keith’s step-brother and owner of this shop.”

Lance grabs Shiro’s hand enthusiastically. “I’m Lance. I go to the university here. Second year major in engineering and aeronautics.”

“Oh, really? You two have classes together then?”

Sparkles are just radiating off Shiro now. Lance can smell the cookies grandma is baking.                                                                                              Yarn is going to start billowing out from behind the counter at any second.

“Just our basic biology. It’s a huge lecture hall though, so we didn’t even realize we had it together.” Keith mumbles, still not looking at either of them.

A bell dings signifying the real hero who would save Lance from this embarrassing situation before his lies began to get tangled up and exposed them both. Shiro turns to the customer and quickly walks to the counter to serve them.

“Take a break, Keith! Spend some time with your friend!”

Keith gives a small groan before elbowing Lance in the ribs to get Lance’s arm off him while Shiro’s not looking.

Lance grabs his coffee and smirks at Keith. “You owe me one.”

“No.” He stares at Lance hard. “If anything, you’ve made this worse. Now I have to pretend to be friends with your dumb ass if Shiro asks. Your hero act was for nothing. He wasn’t going to fire me, idiot.” He scoffs and starts to walk away.

_Oh, you little shit. I’m going to come every day now, so you’ll have to be nice to me._

“See you later, Keith, buddy!” Lance shoots Keith and Shiro a grin before grabbing his bag and heading out. The only good thing about the experience was that now he wouldn’t have to wait around for class to start.

**. . .**

“Hunk! He’s the _worst_!” Lance groans, hanging upside down off his bed. “He’s got a _mullet_ and is the rudest person I’ve ever met! He called me impotent! And then he didn’t even thank me for saving his bacon!”

“Yeah. He totally sounds like the worst.” Hunk blandly replies while doing his homework like the diligent student he is and ignoring Lance.

“Hunk! Listen to me!” Lance screeches back. “This is a travesty! He called me impotent and has a _mullet_! He needs to be punished for his crimes against humanity!”

“Uh huhhh.” Hunk slowly turns in his chair to face Lance. “So, if, let’s just say, someone kept interrupting me while I’m trying to study for a _superrr_ important test, that by your same reasoning, they’d need to be punished as well? For humanity’s sake an all?”

“College has ruined you.”

“Nope! I’ve always been an overthinker and a worrier!” Hunk gives a grin and turns back around. “I’ll make cookies tomorrow and listen to how you annoyed the life out of him tomorrow.”

“I didn’t say I was going to do that.”

“Lance, we’ve know each other since the dawn of time. That’s exactly what you’re going to do. You’re going to go to that coffee shop every day and annoy him until he breaks.” He makes a few marks on his paper before looking up in though. “Actually, I’m just now realizing this, but you’re pretty sadistic.”

“Hmph! The word is petty.”

“Naaah. Sadistic. Now get out!”

“Fiiinee.” Lance groans before moping out of Hunks room.

They’d managed to just barely afford having an apartment together. Thankfully, extra scholarship money, student loans, and college savings would be able to board them for the next couple years. That is, if Lance could stay out of the Lush store. And coffee shops. And, well, anything. Self-control wasn’t exactly something he excelled at.

And thus, it was time to cyber-stalk his new mullet friend.

Or, so he thought. Mullet didn’t seem to have any social media. Shiro did. Lance had found him easily and he was just as popular as he’d expected. There were a few pictures on his social media platforms that had Keith in them, but no way to find Keith. Even on Facebook Shiro had Keith listed as a family member, but there was no link to his name.

“Uuugh. How am I supposed to keep this friend lie up in front of Shiro if I can’t find anything about the guy? What am I supposed to do? Actually have a conversation with the jerk? What could be possibly have in common?”

**. . .**

Lance doesn’t have class until the afternoon the next day, so he decides to start his day off right: by getting coffee and making someone who’s wronged him suffer. You know, just a normal morning filled with self-care.

Walking into the shop, he takes a big sniff of coffee smell. The only smell better was money. Actually, no. Money stunk. But having it was wonderful. The only smell better than coffee, and Hunk’s cooking, was the smell of large bodies of water. The pool, the waterpark, the beach; it didn’t matter. He loved water. Too bad he’d been an idiot and picked a college that had no water nearby. Not to mention, it was colder here too. Damn career aspirations.

There was only one problem: there was no mullet to be seen.

_Damn. What kind of life am I living when not seeing a mullet is a problem?_

Lance frowns and shakes his head before walking up to the counter. Beefcake Shiro is there with a giddy proud smile again.

“Welcome back Lance! What’ll it be today?”

“Uhh. Just an iced coffee with lots of sugar and some creamer today.”

“Sure thing! I’ll give you the employee discount since you’re Keith’s friend.”

“Uhh. Thanks.” Lance shuffles awkwardly in place feeling guilty. Shiro seemed so nice. Lying to him had to be a greater sin than lying to other people. “He not working this morning?”

“Nah. He has class. He didn’t tell you?”

_No because we just met yesterday, and I can’t stalk him online._

“Ahhh. No.” Lance leans against the counter trying to act causal and confident. “He doesn’t really talk about himself much. He’s very secretive.”

Shiro looks at him with pursed lips as he makes Lance’s drink. He gives a sigh as he finishes and puts the lid on. “He wasn’t always like that. It’s been a hard life for him. Be patient with him, okay? If he hasn’t pushed you away yet, then I’m sure he likes you.”

Lance gives a dry swallow and tries to keep his signature smile. If he hadn’t felt guilty earlier, he sure as hell felt guilty now. “I’ll, uh, keep that in mind. I’ve got to go now.”

“Thanks for coming in!” Shiro waves.

“Oh!” Lance stops in his tracks and turns back. “Uh. When does Mul-, I mean Keith, usually work?”

He wasn’t going to leave empty handed. Well, empty handed aside from coffee and getting the pleasure of staring at Shiro. His aesthetic attraction was through the roof.

“Hmm.” Shiro rubs his chin probably debating if he wanted to give that information out. “It’s kind of weird. Let me just write it down for you.” He grabs a piece of paper and starts scribbling. “He insists on working almost every second he’s not in class. I have to force him to have time off since being a student is more important than helping me here.”

_Huh. Sounds like a nice guy. I’m not sure we’re talking about the same one. Or maybe he just has dissociative identity disorder?_

“Here you go!” Shiro cheerfully smiles as he hands Lance a folded piece of paper. “Oh! But don’t tell him I gave you his schedule. He’ll be pissed.” He grimaces. “But, if you two ever have plans and he says he has to work, I can cover for him. Work shouldn’t get in the way of fun like that.”

“Damn. I wish you were my parent.”

“What?”

“Uh. Nothing. I’m going to go to class now!”

“Have fun in biology!”

“Yeah biology.” Lance gives an awkward wave before scurrying out of the shop.

_How’d he know I have biology today? Biology. Biology. Oh! Mullet also has biology._

An evil grin spreads across Lance’s face.

_I’ll just have to get there early and stake out the door, so I can sit with my new best friend, Keith._

**. . .**

The moment Keith sees him standing by the door, he groans and covers his face with one hand.

“What are you doing?”

A not-at-all sadistic grin spreads across Lance’s face. “Just waiting for my favorite mullet to arrive so we can snag a seat together since this lecture is so full.” He raises his coffee and takes a slow sip.

“You went by the coffee shop this morning?”

“Yup!” He pops the ‘p’. “Talked to Shiro for a bit. He’s a nice guy. Unlike someone else I know~”

“Ugh. Whatever. Don’t sit by me.” Keith glares at Lance and pushes past him.

_You’ll have to have a much more terrifying glare to beat my mother’s glare._

Like the good friend he is, he sits beside Keith, who does nothing to hide his dissatisfaction. He pulls his book and binder out, slamming them on the table so hard a few people turn to look at him, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, he takes his jacket off, repositions himself to where he’s cross-legged in the chair, puts on some glasses, and dates his paper for notes.

“Huh. You’re the studious type?” Lance pulls out a notebook and hopelessly searches for some type of writing utensil that’s not a pin and blood. Now was no time to pretend to write in his Death Note. Keith probably wouldn’t even get the reference.

“Shut up.” Keith stares intently at the front of class, waiting for the professor to start like it was going to be the best part of his day, which was just rude and wrong since Lance was right there.

“Didn’t think you’d be one to study all the time. Shiro said you work all the time so I didn’t think you’d have time for that. But since it seems like I’m your only friend, I guess you have free time then.”

Keith’s eyebrow twitches several times and Lance can almost see him counting in his head before responding. He turns to Lance, locking eyes with him. “We. Are. Not. Friends.”

“Uhhh. Pretty sure we are. Shiro thinks we are. And you’d hate to disappoint Shiro, right?”

“Uuugh. Just please shut up. It’s none of your business.”

“Sure, it is. As your new best friend, after all.” Lance gives a grin.

Keith sighs and looks around the lecture hall for a vacant chair.

“If you move, I’m going to follow you even if I have to ask someone to move.”

Keith gives another sigh and rolls his eyes. “Are you always so self-centered? I don’t need you following me like a lost puppy!” He’s positively growling at this point. His voice had been angry sounding since Lance had met him. He didn’t like the guy, but that angry voice of his was alluring.

_Time to embarrass the guy._

“Your angry voice is cute.”

Keith’s head whips over to Lance, eyebrow’s furrowed, nostrils flared, and a slight blush spreading across his cheeks.

_Oh?_

“Alright, class. Let’s begin.”

Keith whips his head back to the front of the class. He rests his head on his hand to block Lance from his view even though that meant he had to use his left hand and he clearly wasn’t a lefty. As soon as class ends, Keith scrambles away so fast Lance can’t even start to bother him again.

_No worries. I have your work schedule._

**. . .**

As it turns out, Shiro hadn’t given Lance _just_ Keith’s work schedule. His class schedule and preferred gym were there as well. The only thing he was missing was Keith’s phone number. That was something he’d have to get from Keith, though. No way he could ask Shiro that without raising suspicion, if he hadn’t already.

“Hunk, I can’t believe this. Shiro, the mullet’s brother, just gave me his whole life schedule. Who does that? What if I was a stalker?”

“Well~ you kind of are a stalker.” He grimaces as he pulls some homemade cheese-filled meatballs from the oven.

“I’d resent that statement if you didn’t look so good making dinner.” He grins at Hunk and eyes dinner: Angel hair pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce with mushrooms and cheese filled meatballs. “Besides, that’s aside from the point! It’s almost as if mullet has never had friends before!”

“Maybe he hasn’t?”

“That’s impossible! Everyone has had at least one friend!” Lance rolls his eyes.

“That’s not true. If you didn’t have Hunk, you would never have had a friend.” Pidge smirks as they enter the kitchen. They’d let themself in for dinner, per usual. It was like they could smell Hunk cooking even though they stayed in dorms.

“Rude Pidge! And are we not friends?”

“Hmm. Not really. Hunk and I are friends. You and I are acquaintances.”

Lance turns to Hunk desperately. “Hunk, buddy, you _are_ my friend, right?”

“Uh, duh. And no matter what Pidge says, they’re your friend too. But we’re probably your only two real friends. Well, except for your new mulleted friend. Which, by the way, does he have a name?”

“You have a friend with a mullet?” Pidge doubles over in laughter.

“Uh. More like enemy. He ran into me, literally, on campus. Later I went to the coffee shop and he works there. We got into it and who I thought was his boss came out. So, we lied to save his ass because I didn’t want that bad karma. Turns out it was his brother, though. I was going to rub it in his face some more but Shiro was working today. Hence, why I know have mullet’s life schedule. Look at this!” He pulls the paper out.

“Huh.” Pidge snatches the paper with one hand and tries to sneak a meatball with the other, earning a swat on the hand from Hunk. “Maybe Hunk’s right. Maybe he doesn’t have any friends?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s rude as hell and always angry.” Lance crosses his arms and huffs.

“Uh huh. And you’re the perfect specimen of a human.” Pidge looks flatly back at him before attempting to sneak a piece of bread this time, earning another swat.

“No! But at least I’m pleasant to be around!”

Pidge gives him another flat look.

“As much as I’d like to agree with you, you’re purposely trying to annoy the guy. I’d be angry all the time too.” Hunk gives his sage wisdom before setting down some plates and grabbing forks. “Also, you may now eat instead of trying to sneak food.”

“Great, I’m starved.” Lance groans before standing up.

Hunk swats his hand with a spatula before he can grab a plate. “I was talking to Pidge. You don’t get food until you tell us who you’re stalking.”

“Ugh.” Lance groans and rolls his eyes. “His name is Keith. I don’t know a last name since he has no social media platforms. His step-brother is Takashi Shirogane, but he goes by Shiro. Shiro has some photos with Keith in them, if you need that as well. Can I eat now?” He reaches for a plate again.

Hunk swats him again, earning a snort from Pidge. Lance shoots both of them glares.

“We’re going to need those pictures.”

“Ugh. Fine. I’ll look them back up.”

Hunk rolls his eyes. “We all know you’ve screenshotted them in case they’re useful for blackmail.”

“No!” Lance screeches before pulling up his photo library. “You just never know when you’ll need photos of your good, super legitimate, friends.” He passes his phone over to Hunk.

“Oh. I’ve seen this guy around. Always looks serious and angry. Hear he’s smart, though.” He passes the phone over to Pidge.

“Huh. I have my engineering class with this guy. He is smart. Terrible at group work though. He does the work, but he’s hard headed and wants to do it all himself. I haven’t had to work with him yet.”

Lance feels the blood drain from his body. Pidge having a class with Keith meant they could get to know each other. Them knowing each other meant bad things could be in store for Lance.

Pidge passes his phone back and Hunk offers Lance a plate.

“Maybe you should try being nice to the guy?” Hunk shrugs. “He doesn’t seem like a bad guy. Maybe just a little wound up?”

**. . .**

Thanks to the schedule Shiro had given Lance, he knows Keith will be working a few hours the next morning until it’s time for him to go to class. Since Lance has to go to his own classes (specifically Dr. Ash’s class that he can’t miss again) he makes sure to get up extra early. Getting up early meant he was in desperate need of caffeine.

Keith glares at Lance the second he steps into the shop, if not before. Lance gives him the must radiant smile he can muster at the god-forsaken hour of nine am before getting in line. This college thing was really cutting into his beauty sleep time.

When he gets up to the register, he musters a wider smile. “Gooood mooorrnnniiiinng Keith! Can you put espresso in my espresso?” He pulls his wallet out with a crazed look in his eye. Staying up playing games with Pidge and Hunk had been a terrible idea.

“Two shots of espresso then?”

“Better make it four.” Lance sighs and shakes his head, too tired to give Keith too much snark.

“Fine. Anything else?”

“Your phone number. As your new best friend, I think it’s something I should have. You know, so we don’t break poor Shiro’s heart?”

“So no.”

Lance pays him before going to sit down and wait. The chairs are too comfy, and his eyes immediately start to fall shut, though, so he has to get right back up.

“Lance!” Keith calls as he sets a drink and a breakfast pastry on the counter beside each other.

Lance looks around confused. Everyone else had gotten their coffee and left, leaving only him and Keith in the shop.

“Uh. I think you made a mistake. I didn’t pay you for any food. Maybe you need this espresso more than I do?” Lance holds the cup out to Keith.

“Take the pastry and leave.” Keith grits out before turning away.

_Huh. Weird._

“Thanks, buddy! See you later!” Lance calls as he walks out.

He’s halfway to class, about two espresso shots in, when he realizes that he didn’t pay very much for his drink. He pulls the receipt back out to find that Keith had also given him the employee discount. He frowns at it, trying to figure out what it means.

_Maybe he’s trying to make up for being a jerk before?_

**. . .**

He forgoes going to the coffee shop that night and the next morning for sleep, glorious sleep. That aside, he wasn’t sure if he had the conscious to go there to annoy Keith when he’d been nice to him the other day.

_Damn. I’ve been bought by a discount and a single pastry. I never knew I was so cheap!_

All that aside, they’d have biology lecture again today, so they’d be forced to see each other. Or, well, Keith would be forced to see Lance since he was still adamant about sitting beside him. On the way, he picks up a couple bottles of Naked. Keith had treated him to a pastry, so it was only fair that Lance get him something as well, right?

Since he stopped, he doesn’t make it to class early enough to stake out the door. He peeks in to find that Keith is already there in the same spot as before and comfortable.

_He’s not even trying to avoid me?_

Feeling more and more like an asshole, Lance takes the empty seat beside Keith, and presses one of the drinks against Keith’s hand.

“What is wrong with you?” Keith turns, glaring.

“Which one do you want?” Lance sighs, setting both drinks on the table and digging in his own bag for a notebook. He hadn’t exactly expected Keith to warm up to him, but all this hostility was tiring. How did someone so short and compact have so much anger built up inside them? Then again, Pidge was the same way.

“What?”

“You gave me a discount and a pastry the other day and now I’m giving you a drink.” Lance replies flatly before searching for a blank page for notes.

“I don’t need your charity.” Keith grumbles before looking away.

“Man, fucking look,” Lance bubbles up in anger, trying to keep his voice down, “it’s not fucking charity. If I were offering any charity to you, it’d be for a haircut. Now cut the crap and take a drink. We’re friends, remember?”

“And like I told you before, we’re not friends.”

“Not the way I see it.” Lance smirks. “We’ve seen each other every day this week, we’ve bought things for each other, and you didn’t even try to avoid me for class today. Sounds like friends to me. Speaking of, I still need your phone number, and we should probably meet each other’s friends soon since you and I are the _best_ of friends.”

“That’s not happening.”

Lance gives a low whistle. “You and I both know it needs to happen if you want to keep lying to Shiro. I don’t even want to know why you even feel the need to, though.”

Keith leans over and presses his forehead against the table. “I’ll give you my number and meet your friends if you promise to not be an asshole about it.”

“What about your friends?”

There’s no answer from Keith and he shifts his face slightly away from Lance.

“Oh, come on! You’re too embarrassed of your new best friend to let me meet your friends?”

“. . . . Shiro.” Keith mumbles into his papers.

“What?”

Keith removes his head from the table and looks straight toward the front of the classroom. “I said you’ve already met Shiro.”

“That doesn-“

“That’s all there is to meet. Just Shiro.” He grits out, still staring at the front of the classroom.

_Hunk was right._

Lance feels that sinking feeling in his stomach. Sure, he had friends, two really good friends, and family, but if it weren’t for them, he’d be alone. He was social, but most people he talked to were no more than acquaintances.

“Then we should hang out with Shiro some time!” Lance grins. “I’m sure he’d love to!”

Keith looks at him from the corner of his eye. “Maybe. He works all the time, though.”

“Don’t worry!” Lance wraps an arm around Keith in attempt at some sort of comforting gesture. “I’m sure he’d close early for a chance to hang out with his little bro and his best friend!”

“Ugh. I get the feeling you’re right.” Keith rolls his eyes and gives a halfhearted grimace.

The professor steps up to the podium to start class and Lance presses the drinks toward Keith once more.

Keith pretends to ignore them before taking one. He opens it and takes a sip before writing something on the margin of his paper and pushing it toward Lance.

**Thanks.**

**. . .**

“Hunk! Hunk you were right!” Lance screeches, barreling into their apartment.

“Well, yeah! But about what this time?” He asks, not bothering to look up from his homework he was doing in the living room.

“Mullet, Keith, doesn’t have any friends. I’m not sure if it’s because of the mullet or because of his temper, though.”

Hunk slowly looks up and frowns at Lance. “None?”

Lance shakes his head back and shrugs before taking a seat on the floor close to Hunk. He pulls his knees to his chest and wraps his arms around him. “I was teasing him and said we should meet each other’s friends. He said he only has Shiro.” He stares at the ground for a second and frowns. “I feel bad for him.”

“Aww.” Hunk muses and taps his chin with a pen. “But it sounds like you two are already friends, so that’s not entirely true.”

Lance’s head shoots up and he scowls at Hunk. “We are not friends.”

“Uh. You’re worried about him. You’re friends whether you like it or not.” He gives a big signature Hunk grin that makes flowers bloom. “And I will be his second friend. Ask him what he likes to eat, and I’ll make dinner for us all. Pidge will show up too, though, since you know they won’t let a real meal get past them. They’ll probably be cordial to him, but” Hunk trails off.

“I’m going to get roasted all night long.” Lance groans and releases his legs. “Shiro gives him Saturday nights off. If I can get him to come, can you do dinner then?”

“Sure!” Hunk beams before blushing. “Since we’re already inviting a stranger and the gremlin Pidge, do you mind if we invite one more stranger?”

“No way we’re not inviting whoever it is since you’re blushing!” Lance stretches out on the floor to where he’s resting on his elbows and both his hands are on this face. “Who is this mystery person?”

“Her name is Shay. We have a class together and she is one of the sweetest, most gentle souls I’ve ever met.”

“Oooh~. Sounds like my Hunk has a crush.”

Lance smirks at him, feeling slightly jealous. He’d had plenty of crushes and partners before, but they never tended to last long. Things always got weird when his partner wanted to go to the ‘next level’. He wasn’t impotent like Keith had suggested, nor was he shy, it’s just when it came down to it, he’d never wanted to have sex with any of his partners. Flirting was always much more fun, but sex was something that worried him infinitely more than he let on. But hey, that wasn’t who Lance McClain was. There was no time for moping around. Maybe he was just destined to be alone forever.

The blush on Hunk’s face grows. “I, uh. I think I’m going to ask her on a date if this dinner goes well.”

“Hunk, buddy. You’ve got nothing to worry about. Pidge and I have been in love with you since the first time you ever cooked for us. She’ll fall in love with you, for sure. Keith might even smile for once and I’ll lose my place as his best friend.” Lance grimaces at Hunk before laughing. “Seriously, though. It’s going to go great.”

**. . .**

“Hey, buddy~”

Lance gives a catlike smirk to Keith. It’s Friday night and the coffee shop is deserted. Keith looks dead on his feet and he might even be considering he’s resting on a broom and staring off into space. He jumps a little at Lance’s voice.

“Wh-what?” He blinks a few times at him. “Oh. What do you want to order?”

“Damn, man. Maybe you need to get something. It’s sad when you work in a coffee shop and aren’t even properly caffeinated.”

“I don’t like being dependent on drugs.”

“What? It’s coffee, not cocaine.” Lance rolls his eyes.

“Coffee is a drug. That’s why people get so cranky and have withdrawals. Anything can be a drug, really, and I don’t want to have addictions like that.”

“Well, okay then.” Lance shoves his hands in his pockets and eyes the shop for something to do. “I didn’t come here for coffee, though.”

“You came just to annoy me?” Keith deadpans.

“Not quite. Even I don’t have that much free time.” He pulls one hand from his pocket and fiddles with a bag of coffee beans for sale. “Hunk, one of my other friends, is making dinner tomorrow night and you’re invited. Oh, and Pidge, my other friend, and Hunk’s crush, Shay, will be there too.”

“I work tomorrow night.” Keith comes back to life and starts to sweep aimlessly, looking at the ground and avoiding Lance.

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“You don’t.” Lance grins.

Keith stops sweeping and looks back up at Lance. “You already asked Shiro if I worked.”

“Yup!.” Lance’s grin grows even wider. “Now all I need is your number, so I can text you the address and what time.”

“Can’t you just tell me now?”

Lance rocks on his heels, feeling certain victory was coming. “I could, but that still doesn’t get me your number.”

“Ugh. Whatever.” Keith shakes his head and holds his hand out for Lance to hand him his phone. He slowly puts his name and number in.

Lance checks the name when Keith hands the phone back and presses call to see if the number was even a real number. It rings and there’s a soft vibrating noise coming from over by the register.

“Huh. Didn’t think you’d give me your real number.” Lance comments as he ends the call.

Keith is staring daggers at him. “It’d be a pain if Shiro went through my phone.”

“Whatever you say~” Lance puts his hands behind his back and takes a few backward steps toward the door. “Dinner will be at five tomorrow. Be sure to have an appetite because Hunk’s cooking is delicious and since his crush is coming over, he’ll be pulling out all the stops.”

“I never said I was coming.”

“I already told Shiro you were~” He takes a few more backwards steps toward the door. It was a lie, but there was no way Keith would confirm it with Shiro.

“I’m starting to really hate you.”

“Aww. I hate you too, best friend.” Lance winks before pressing reaching the door. He stands there for a second with his back pressing against it. “Don’t even think about bailing or I will blow your phone and show up here bawling to Shiro.”

“Is your only goal in life to make me miserable?”

Lance shrugs. “It’s much more fun than studying. Besides, you make it so easy.” He gives a final smirk to Keith before stepping out the door.

**. . .**

Lance texts Keith the address to their apartment later that night, but to everyone’s surprise, Keith doesn’t respond. No response was probably better than a response at this point. There was also the possibility that Shiro saw and was taking several hundred photos of Keith being invited over and posting them on every platform imaginable. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

Lance and Pidge are sitting in the kitchen watching Hunk cook and trying to sneak food. He’d decided on a very loaded salad, pumpernickel rolls, baked parmesan pork chops, cheesy mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a fruit tart for dessert. Essentially, some mix between super healthy and death. It was going to be great. That is, if they didn’t die from starvation combined with the irresistible smell of food.

“Huuuunk,” Lance whines, draped over the counter, “why must you tempt us so? Can’t we just have a little bit of food before dinner?”

“Nope! You should’ve eaten earlier.”

“But I wasn’t hungry until you started cooking. It smells too good!”

Pidge snickers at him. “When are you ever going to learn, Lancelot?”

“You’re trying to sneak food too, Gremlin!”

“Yeah,” Pidge scoffs, “but I always try to sneak food. Unlike you, I’m not starving.”

“Uuugh.” Lance knocks his head against the table a few times. “Are they here yet? Is dinner done yet?”

“Shay said she’ll be here in a few minutes. Apparently, she lives close by. What about Keith? Is he even coming?”

“Maybe? If he’s not here by five I’m going to blow up his phone.”

“You mean he hasn’t blocked you and reported you for harassment yet?” Pidge muses, hand reaching out for bread.

“Hey! I’m not harassing anyone!” Lance screeches back.

He’s met with two unconvinced faces.

“Well, I’m probably not harassing anyone.” He trails off.

Thankfully, there’s a knock on the door to save him from having to defend himself. Hopefully, it’d be Keith. Him showing up would prove Hunk and Pidge wrong. Maybe. Shit. Who was he kidding? Keith showing up would only confirm Lance had been harassing him

Instead, he’s met with Shay standing in front of their door. He’d never met Shay, but he had seen, and by seen, looked up, several pictures of her online. Not that her pale skin, brown hair, and golden eyes made her forgettable anyway.

“You must be Lance.” She beams, blushing slightly.

“Sure am! It’s nice to meet you, Shay! Come on it!” He directs her inside and toward the kitchen.

Hunk stops what he’s doing when he sees her. “Hey! Glad you made it. Did you find the apartment easily enough?”

“Hi.” She gives a small wave and blushes. “And, yes.”

Pidge snickers before patting a chair next to them. “I’m Pidge. I hear you’ve been beating Hunk out for the top spot in your mathematics class.” They smirk.

Shay blushes and gives a giggle. She responds, but Lance has already stopped paying attention. It was five till five and there still hadn’t been any word from Keith. The idea of him bailing was ruining Lance’s good mood. It shouldn’t, but it was. He hadn’t flat out told Lance to fuck off after he’d invited him, so lance has expected him to come.

True to Hunk nature, everything is finished at exactly five. Everyone looks famished, but Keith still hasn’t shown up.

“You guys go ahead. I’m going to try to call Keith. If he’s close, I’ll wait and eat with him. Otherwise, it’s his loss of the century.” Lance tries to shrug it off casually, hiding his hurt from being bailed on. This was worse than when no one except Hunk showed up to his fourteenth birthday.

He steps outside the apartment and rests his back against their apartment door. There’s no new texts or missed calls. He sighs, finds Keith’s contact info, and presses call. Some horrible screamo music echo’s in the stairs at the same time. He pulls the phone from his ear to see Keith walking up the stairs, brown bag in hand, and trying to pull his phone out of his pants pocket, which were extra tight today.

Not only were his jeans extra tight, his shirt was too. He was in all black except for some red chucks. He’d tied his hair, or rather his mullet, back in a ponytail. He looked _good_.

“Mullet!” Lance pushes down the fluttering feeling his heart is doing and tries to look gleeful. For some reason, now he was wishing Keith hadn’t come even though he was the one to invite him. He turns his expression to a serious one as Keith closes the gap between them. “You’re late.”

“I know.” Keith groans before wiping some sweat from his forehead. “In Japan, it’s traditional to bring a gift to guests.”

“Uh, this is America, buddy.”

“I know.” He huffs. “But Shiro is Japanese and you know how he is. At first, I was just going to do sweets, but then I remembered Hunk was cooking and thought it’d be bad. The other traditional gift is booze, but I didn’t know what kind to get since I don’t usually drink. Shiro was at work, so I had to wait until Adam was free to get his opinion. And I didn’t know what Hunk was making so I didn’t know what would pair well or what anyone likes.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s all cool, man. You worry too much.” He gives a smile before getting back to business. Lance’s lips form a thin line. “Who’s Adam?”

“Shiro’s husband.”

“Oh.” Lance’s eyebrows raise. “That’s cool. Everyone’s already here. Let’s eat.” He gives a grin before opening the door.

Keith catches Lance’s sleeve with his free hand. “Sorry about being late.”

“Keith, baby, I told you, you worry too much. I’m surprised you even showed up.” Lance tries to flash that trademark grin again, but it was hard since by the time he’d finished speaking, he’d realized he’d called Keith baby and it felt natural. And that Keith hadn’t decked him for it.

He leads Keith inside and toward the kitchen, trying to use his nose instead of his brain. For once, that wasn’t easy to do. Damn scumbag brain. Everyone had decided to not be impatient like Lance and waited to see if Keith would show up, something Lance was strangely grateful for. He didn’t want Keith to feel left out.

“Hey, everybody! Keith is here!” Lance cheerfully calls out. “Everyone, meet Keith.” He showcases Keith Vanna White style. “This adorable guy here is Hunk, the creator of this heavenly smell; this lovely lady here is Hunk’s friend and classmate, Shay; and this gremlin over here is Pidge, also known as Satan.”

“Uh. Hi.” Keith does an awkward little wave. “It’s nice to meet everyone. Uh. Thanks for having me. I brought some, uh, wine. My step-brother is Japanese,” his voice starts to drop, and trail off, “and it’s traditional to bring something, but you don’t have to drink it.”

“Thank you, Keith!” Hunk beams and stands back up. “Wine would be great with dinner. I’ll get some glasses.”

Lance puts Keith in the empty seat beside Pidge and sits between him and shay. Hunk comes back with four cups of wine, stoutly refusing to give Pidge a glass even though they reached for one.

“Come on, Hunk! I’d be wasted all the time if I was back home! Just give me a glass!”

“Sorry, Pidge. We’re not in Italy. You can’t have booze here.”

Pidge crosses their arms and slinks down in their seat. “Fun sucker.”

Shay gives a giggle. “We’ll have a party for you when you’re finally legal.”

Pidge groans at that. “Thanks.” They sarcastically reply.

“Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was underage.” Keith mumbles.

“That gremlin doesn’t need booze!” Lance points at Pidge forcefully. “They’re mean when they drink.”

“Nah. Don’t worry about it, Keith. I’ve still got a few years until I’m legal anyway.”

Keith looks up at Pidge confused.

“The gremlin is a genius who started college early.” Lance offers, taking a sip of his wine while intently staring at Pidge.

“I’m not a genius, you’re just stupid.” Pidge rolls their eyes at him.

Keith snorts at that. “But you’re from Italy?”

“Yup! None of us are from America, actually. We just came here for college.”

“Really?” He looks around at the rest of the table.

“Cuba, baby.” Lance smiles and then internally cringes, realizing he’d called Keith baby twice in the last fifteen minutes. And yet, he still hadn’t been pummeled.

Shay gives a shy wave. “South Africa.”

“Samoa for me.” Hunk grins with pride.

“Huh. I’m Korean.”

“And you said Shiro is Japanese, right?” Lance tilts his head wondering how that happened. Sure, they were close to each other geographically, but the world was a huge place.

“Yeah. Shiro is Japanese and his husband, Adam, is Columbian. Shiro’s best friend, Allura, is British and her girlfriend, Romelle, is Canadian.” He nods, encompassing all the countries everyone was from.

“Wow.” Lance mouths. “We need to all get together for a D&D game!”

There’s a collection of groans from the table.

“No!” Hunk shouts. “How about we eat before the food gets cold and while we eat, we think about anything but playing D&D with Lance?”

“Agreed!” Pidge cheers before grabbing for some bread.

“I think playing D&D with everyone might be fun.” Shay offers, making herself a salad. “Why is everyone opposed to it?”

Keith stares at her directly. “Have you not interacted with Lance at all? He’s annoying.”

“Hey!” Lance pouts. “I try to annoy you, though!”

“I just met Lance, but I don’t think he’s annoying.” Shay gives Lance a smile.

“That’s right!” Lance cheers, wrapping his arm around Shay’s shoulder. “All of you need to take lessons from Shay here, or she’s going to steal the position of my best friend.”

Hunk snorts. “Good luck. Friendship goes two ways. Even a saint like Shay will get annoyed with you after a few days. She’ll return you to me.”

Lance gives another pout and places some food on his plate. He was being bullied, as usual, but he was having fun.

Throughout dinner, Keith managed to speak normally to everyone. Well, normally to everyone who wasn’t Lance. He was still rude as hell to him. But he was polite to everyone else and seemed comfortable enough with them. At one point, Lance swears he even saw a grin on Keith’s face that he was hiding behind his hand.

The one thing Lance does know, is that the wine Keith brought was amazing and he was toeing the line of tipsy and drunk. And tired. So very, very tired. Booze with such a heavy meal was about to put him to sleep like a baby.

“Hunk, dinner was amazing.” Keith wipes his mouth with a napkin. “Lance said you were an amazing cook, but I wasn’t prepared for your cooking to be that good. It was the best meal I’ve ever had.”

“Aww.” Hunk blushes and squirms around a bit. Getting complimented on his cooking was pretty much a kink for him at this point, especially by strangers. “Thank you! You’ll have to come by again sometime. I’ll make whatever you ask for.”

“I need homemade pizza!” Pidge interjects, or rather shouts.

“I made you pizza last month.” Hunk rolls his eyes. “Same for you, Shay. If there’s anything you ever want, I’ll be happy to make it for you. There’s an open invitation for anytime I make dinner.” He gives Shay a big grin.

“Thank you. I loved your cooking. I might have to take you up on that offer sometime.” She returns Hunk’s grin. Lance can see the hearts oozing off them. “I’ll help you with dishes.”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“Please.”

“I’ll he-“

Lance covers Keith’s mouth before he can get the offer out. Keith shoots him a glare, but Lance just raises an eyebrow and gives a pointed look at Hunk and Shay, who are on the verge of eye fucking at this point. It was like watching Lady and the Tramp. Keith goes to grab Lance’s hand off his mouth, but Lance catches his wrist and pulls him from the table, Pidge following behind them.

“We’re going to go watch a movie!” Lance calls behind him, knowing full well that Hunk and Shay were off in their own little world. As long as they didn’t start doing things in the kitchen, it’d be fine.

“Welp, my dudes, it’s been fun and all, but I’ve eaten and now I’m running so I can go play a game.” Pidge grins, clearly scheming, and puts their shoes on.

“What game?” Lance narrows his eyes.

“Assassins Creed.” They grin back before slipping through the door.

“I think I should go too” Keith starts to step toward the door.

“No way, man. Let’s watch something.”

There’s giggling in the kitchen that makes Lance’s shoulders creep up to his ears.

“Actually, let’s watch something in my room.”

The strangest thing happens. Maybe it’s the booze, but Keith smirks. “I already told you there’s no way you could top me.”

Lance can’t help but to snort and laugh. “That is not what I had in mind, you pervert!” He looks again to the kitchen. “Just, come on, I’ll explain in a second.”

He drags Keith to his room and shuts the door behind them. He gives a sigh. “Bed is best place to watch TV but sit where ever you like.”

“You going to tell me why we’re in here?” Keith raises an eyebrow but sits on Lance’s bed anyway. “Or is this some kind of ploy to convince me into letting you top?”

Lance gives a groan and knocks his head against the door. “You wish, mullet.” He shakes his head. “Can’t you read a mood? Those two are about to jump on each other in there. Now that the minor is gone, the only thing that’s stopping them is you being here. Even if they do, they’ll be quiet.”

“Why don’t you just leave then?”

“Because,” Lance stretches, looking for a viable reason other than wanting to spend more time with Keith because that was just an outrageous notion, “I’m too full and too tired to be roaming around. Plus, if I let you step out of this apartment, our hang out time will officially be over until I can magically convince you to hang out with me again.”

“Why do you even want to hang out with me? I thought you hated me.”

“I hate your rudeness, but apparently you’re only rude to me since you seemed so cordial to everyone else tonight.” Lance smirks at him before climbing on the other side of the bed. He lays down, propping himself up with one elbow, facing Keith slightly. “But I guess that just means I’m special.”

“You’re just annoying.” Keith rolls his eyes. He scoots to where his back is against the wall, crosses his legs, and hugs a pillow. “Your friends are nice, though.”

“You mean our friends.” Lance hums as he turns the TV on and searches Netflix for something to watch.

“You know you’re my only self-proclaimed friend.”

Lance snorts. “You don’t get it, do you? You’re hanging out with me right now out of your own violation. No matter how you look at it, we’re real friends at this point. Hunk’s already accepted you as a friend before you two met. From what I hear, Shay is a saint and befriends everyone she meets. Pidge, well, they’re not exactly as open and friendly as everyone else, but since they didn’t try to make you look idiotic, I’d say they like you. So, yes, our friends.”

Keith frowns and stares hard at the TV.

“They like you, Keith, buddy. Don’t think too hard about it.” He clicks through his queue a few more times before finding what he was searching for. “Buut~ to be a part of our group, you have to like Voltron.” He adjusts so he can see Keith better.

A small smile is playing on Keith’s face. “It’s too bad.”

Lance isn’t fully aware of what Keith’s saying. He’s too busy staring at Keith. His smile, his hair being tied back, and the adorable, almost childish sitting position he always took was calling to Lance. He wanted to see Keith wearing his glasses and relaxing on his bed in comfortable clothes.

“Why’s that?” Lance softly lets out.

“I love Voltron.”

**. . .**

Keith gets slightly friendlier with Lance after that night. He doesn’t text him first, and he sure as hell doesn’t answer phone calls, but he does occasionally reply to Lance’s texts. He never offers to spend time with Lance or ask to hang out, but he has agreed to hang out a couple of times. He even sat in on one of Lance’s D&D games before getting bored and wandering off. All of it was so unanticipated that Lance doesn’t know how to handle it. Keith was fitting into his, and by proxy Hunk and Pidge’s, life so quickly. It was weird.

What was weirder though, was the teensy tiny bubble of a crush Lance had on Keith. Was getting. Might be getting. Totally didn’t have at all. He didn’t really know what to call it, all he knew is that he wanted to spend more time with Keith, and not in the same way he spent time with Hunk or Pidge. It was reminiscent of how he yearned to spend time with his previous partners, but still different. He couldn’t quite place it. All he knew was that the grump known as Keith was quickly becoming one of the most adorable people Lance had ever met.

Weeks go by and he keeps pushing that feeling down, trying to quell it. Instead of slowly fading away, it starts to fester instead. He starts stopping by the coffee shop more often. His texts to Keith get more frequent and his normal friendly gestures, arm around the shoulders, hugs, and such, become more frequent. Even Hunk, who frequently he frequently hugged and cuddled with, was starting to give him concerned looks. Though, it was likely Hunk was still worried Keith was going to report Lance for harassment.

Lance is still telling himself that there’s nothing to be worried about and that this Thing™ he’s feeling for Keith will go away, when something terrible happens.

He has a wet dream about Keith.

True to Keith’s insinuations and preferences, Lance is on his back with Keith riding him. One of Keith’s hands is grasping Lance’s hip. He’s covered in sweat, hair tied back, and his swollen cock is standing proudly in front of Lance, dripping wet. Both of Lance’s hands are on Keith’s hips and somewhere in his brain it resonates that he likes how Keith’s paler skin looks against his own. He’s thrusting into Keith, making Keith moan and cry out Lance’s name.

Orgasming in his sleep and feeling the wetness, jerks Lance awake. He springs up in bed and looks down to his own crotch, horrified. Sure, he’d had wet dreams before, but they’d never been realistic like that. He’d never fucked a person in his dreams. It was unheard of. Any time he thought about having sex with someone, it made him cringe. Why did thinking about having sex with Keith make him come?

Mind running back to the dream, his gut tells him he liked it.

“No, no, no, no! This can’t be happening!” Lance groans before hopping out of bed and stripping. He runs to the shower to take the absolute hottest shower possible to punish his body for betraying him like that.

He’s still ruminating on the dream when he’s finally dressed and heading out to the kitchen for some food or anything that will distract him.

It doesn’t work.

His mind drifts back to Keith and Lance wants to run his lips along Keith’s neck.

“Hunk!” Lance screams. “Hunk! I have a _problem_!” He continues to scream as he barges into Hunk’s room.

Hunk covers his head with his blankets. “No! No problems until noon!”

Lance collapses on top of Hunk. “Yes! I have a _problem_!”

Hunk peeks slightly over the covers. “If this is trivial, I’m going to strangle you.”

“It’s not!”

“Fine. What’s your problem?”

“I-,” The words get caught in his throat as he realizes what he’s about to say. Hunk’s been with him forever, though. What’s a little oversharing at this point in their relationship? “I had a wet dream.”

“And you’re on me and telling me this why?” Hunk shuffles back under the covers slightly. “Or was it about me?”

“No, it wasn’t about you.” Lance sassily shakes his head back at Hunk. “Or your food even though it’s orgasmic.”

“Thank you. You going to tell me who it was about?”

Lance takes a deep breath. “Keith. I had a wet dream about _Keith_.”

Hunk hums, nestling further into bed. “That’s nice. Good night now.”

Lance gets a squawk out before Hunk’s lurching up in bed and staring at him.

“You had a wet dream about Keith.” He blinks a couple of times. “ _You_ had a wet dream about _Keith_.”

“I know!” Lance groans. “Can you please stop repeating it?”

“But, Lance, that’s, well,” Hunk scrunches his mouth up looking for the right words, “uncanny for you, but I don’t know why you’re so freaked out about it. It’s obvious you have a crush on him.”

Lance gives another squawk before staring Hunk in horror.

“Come on, dude. You’re super touchy with him and spend a lot of time with him.”

“I. Do. Not. Have a crush on Mullet.”

“I can you staring at him, man. And not the kind of glares you used to give him or ‘please let me cut your hair’ types of looks. More like longing.”

“No. No way!”

Hunk groans and falls back down in bed. “If you’re going to pretend to be in denial, can you wait until it’s past noon? I can’t deal with that until the clock shows pm.”

“Uuugh! Hunk! Please help me here!”

“Okay, fine. Listen. You’re up at,” Hunk fishes for his phone to display the time, “seven thirty on a Tuesday even though you don’t have class because you had a sex dream about Keith. Keith, which by the way is a pretty cool dude and you know is gay and very single. Not to mention, for some reason, he puts up with you.”

“Rude.”

“As I was saying,” Hunk grumbles and rolls his eyes, “you obviously romantically liked Keith before your dream, whether or not you’ll admit to it. The dream doesn’t mean you’re sexually into him. Dreams don’t necessarily _mean_ anything. That you enjoyed it, might.”

“Buuttt I’ve never wanted to do anything past cuddling and kissing before.” Lance whines.

“What about Keith?”

“Uh, pretty sure we already established he’s into sex. Next!”

“No, idiot. Think about doing sexual stuff with Keith.”

Lance closes his eyes and tries to imagine it. Cuddling and kissing sounds great, pressing up against each other shirtless sounds like a plan, but anything past that was hard to imagine. The dream had been so nice. Real life made a part of Lance go ‘nope!’.

“I’m not sure. I don’t think so?”

“But you’re not sure?”

“No. It’s, uh, it’s a possibility.”

“Then go figure it out.” Hunk hoists the covers over his head definitively.

“What? I can’t just go ask him if he wants to have sex!”

Hunk groans and fake cries. “How did you make it into college? Go meet up with him and see if your body reacts. You have class later, right? That’d be a great time to sneak glances when he’s not paying attention.”

Lance feels his body go cold. He’d forgotten that he’d have to see Keith later in class today.

**. . .**

Lance is slowly walking to class, debating if he should skip or not, when he feels his phone vibrating with a text. He groans, getting the uneasy feeling that Hunk is nagging him to “go to class” and to “listen to what your body says”.

Instead, he’s pleasantly surprised by a message from Keith.

[ **Keith** ]: You’re coming today, right? I brought us breakfast sandwiches and coffee.

“Fuuucckk. Now I can’t _not_ go.”

_Shit. Won over by food again._

He shakes his head at himself before sending a quick “omw” and hightailing it to class. By the time he gets there, he’s out of breath. He plops down in the seat beside Keith where he’s already put the drink and sandwich for Lance there.

“Hey, Mullet! What’d I do to deserve this treat?”

Keith takes a bite from his sandwich and rolls his eyes. He’s already got his glasses on, notebook out and ready, feet up, and hair tied. “Adam stopped by during lunch and Shiro made too many.”

“And he made too many of this ridiculously sugary drink as well?” Lance takes a sip of the latte that was peculiarly similar to the one he’d first ordered to piss Keith off.

“No. I just didn’t want to hear you snoring in class again. When I told Shiro it was for you, he pretty much shoved it in my hands.”

Lance gives a snort. “I’ve been thinking this for a while, but if I didn’t know any better, I’d think Shiro was your parent, not your brother.”

Keith frowns and takes another bite of his sandwich, slowly chewing it this time before answering. “He kind of is. Legally, we’re brothers, but he and Adam raised me since I was a teenager.”

“Oh.” Lance quietly whispers.

“Don’t worry about it. They’re dead.” Keith replies flatly and stares forward like he does when he doesn’t want to talk anymore.

Lance gives him a soft smile even though Keith’s devoutly ignoring him. “Hey, thanks for lunch. You want to hang out tonight? I might be able to convince Hunk to whip something up for us.”

_Well. Something up for you. Hunk is probably still mad at me for waking him up this morning._

“I’ve got work.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I don’t know how you have my work schedule memorized, but I’m covering for Shiro tonight, so he and Adam can go on a date.”

Lance rests his elbow on the table and his face on his palm. “I’ll bring you dinner then. It’ll have to be fast food, though. What are you in the mood for?”

“I love fast food. Surprise me.”

Lance raises an eyebrow and eyes Keith’s body. He was firm all over from working out. If he worked out as seriously as he did school work, he probably spent hours in the gym. His eyes travel down from Keith’s chest to his crotch. Images of Keith’s swollen cock in his dreams come flashing back into his mind and blood goes flashing back to his cock. He turns quickly and scoots his chair in closer to the table.

He clears his throat to hide his embarrassment, hoping Keith hadn’t noticed. “It’s a date then.”

Keith only grunts in response, too preoccupied by ignoring Lance’s existence and eating.

Lance finds himself sneaking more glances at Keith as class progresses. The more he does, the more unnerving sitting next to Keith becomes.

_When did Keith Mullet Kogane get so hot?_

**. . .**

“Hunk! I have another problem!”

Hunk groans in irritation from the couch. He and Shay were practically on top of each other. They pull apart from each other, faces red, and clothes slightly disheveled.

“No! You already had a problem this morning. You’ve used up your problem-solving passes for the day. Try again tomorrow or ask Pidge.”

Shay giggles and looks toward Lance. “What’s your problem?”

“Thank you! You should try to be more like Shay, Hunk! She’s a real saint!”

Hunk rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, clearly still not over been woken up at such an ungodly hour to talk about Lance’s sex dreams even though that was a privilege.

“In exchange,” she snickers, “you have to let Hunk and I have some alone time.”

Lance wrinkles his nose at the thought. “Deal!” He sits on the opposite couch. “So, Keith.” He looks intently at Shay and then over to Hunk. He’d already overshared with Hunk today, why not Shay as well? “I had a sex dream about Keith.”

Shay’s eyes go large, but she keeps her face stoic and nods.

“I don’t _have_ sex dreams. I’ve never had the urge to have sex with anyone. But I had that dream and Hunk told me that dreams don’t mean things and that if I still wasn’t sure maybe I should observe Keith and see if my body reacted the same.” He runs his hands through his hair in frustration, voice getting louder as he goes. “And, well, it reacted, all right? Looking at Keith turned me on! I don’t know what to do with this information! This has never happened before! I never thought it would, but I sure as hell didn’t think it’d happen for someone with a _mullet_!”

“So, you’re sexually attracted to Keith? Why don’t you ask him out then?”

“Where you listening? I don’t get _sexually attracted_ to people. This has _never_ happened before.”

“Never?”

“No.”

“But you are now?”

“Yes?”

“Then you’re sexually attracted to Keith.” Shay shrugs. “Have you not always been attracted to him?”

“No! The first time we met, he fell on top of me. His ass was on my crotch for at least a full minute, and nothing!”

“Maybe you’re just not attracted to people you don’t know well?”

Lance opens his mouth to argue, but his brain is working overtime trying to think of an instance where he’d known one of his partners well. He’d only ever dated people for short amounts of time. His longest relationship with someone was maybe two months. He’d already known Keith for just over two months and had been spending way more time with him than he had anyone he’d dated before. Aside from that, the only people who’d been in his life consistently aside from family were Hunk and Pidge.

“I,” Lance starts before snapping his mouth shut. “Maybe?” He stares at the floor trying to absorb this new fact about himself. “Fuck!” He screams to the ceiling. “I gotta go!” He grabs his jacket and runs toward the door before running back. “Thanks Shay! I won’t be back until after ten when the coffee shop closes!”

**. . .**

He winds us picking up Taco Bell for dinner. Not only was Taco Bell _supremely_ _romantic_ , but it was also on the way to the coffee shop and he didn’t want the slushies to melt before he got there. He felt ridiculous ordering half the menu and bringing it to an alleged date until he saw Keith’s eyes light up looking at the bag.

“You brought Taco Bell?” His eyes move over to the slushies. “And slushies?”

“Yup! You said you like fast food, so I thought I’d go for the mother of all fast food that aims to kill and that isn’t actually food. You’ve noticed they don’t even _try_ to market it as food, right?”

Keith snorts. “It doesn’t kill you. I grew up on fast food.”

The shop is empty since it’s Friday night and everyone has much better things to be doing instead of sitting around. There were parties to be attending and dates to be had! They sit down at one of the tables near the counter, so Keith could get back to work quickly if need be.

“No way.” Lance shoots Keith a look of disbelief. “You and Shiro are so buff. There’s no way he let you live off fast food. I’d be surprised if he even eats the stuff.”

“You’re not wrong there,” Keith grabs a quesadilla, his eyes lighting up more. “Shiro and Adam both don’t like fast food. I have to sneak it now. But before I came to live with Shiro, I had fast food all the time. Home cooked meals weren’t a priority.”

Lance carefully avoids eye contact and picks a burrito at random. “My mother would die if she heard that. We lived only on homecooked meals unless we were gone all day, which was probably more than she liked considering there’s four of us she had to take to sports practice, music lessons, and other classes.”

“Four?” Keith echoes back, already eating something else.

“Yup! Now it’s more like seven because my older brother got married and had two kids.”

“Huh.”

“Sorry to bring up family. I know it’s not exactly your favorite subject.”

“It’s fine. I don’t really want to talk about it, but as long as I have Shiro and Adam, everything is okay now.”

Lance gives a hum. It was getting way too serious for this so-called date. It was time to tease Keith.

“Why the power bottom pin?” he smirks at Keith. “I thought you didn’t have any friends. How’d you get boyfriends?”

Keith rolls his eyes back at Lance. “No one ever said anything about boyfriends. It’s much easier to have sex partners than it is to keep friends. You only need to have one thing in common to have sex: the desire to.”

Lance’s smirk falls a bit. “Oh. I guess I’m the opposite.”

“How so? From what I hear, you’ve dated around a bit. And that you asked Allura out once.” He takes a bit of food, feigning innocence.

“I what?” Lance screeches.

“Yup. Remember a beautiful girl with long white hair and a British accent calling your ears hideous?”

Lance gives a slow nod.

“That would be Allura.”

Lance facetables. “Oh my god.”

Keith laughs back at him.

“But, no. I manage to get partners, but they never last long. I’ve never had a one-night stand and, somehow, I’ve managed to keep Hunk and Pidge around for a long time.”

“Are you flaunting your luck now?” Keith raises an eyebrow at him and smirks. “A new partner every couple of months sounds a hell of a lot better than hooking up with randos when you’re desperate. And lifelong friends? You’re just being cruel to me.”

“I don’t get a new partner every few months because I want to. They all break up with me. And it’s not like I date them for sex.”

Keith gives him a flat look. “Please. You flirt with everyone you speak to. I’m not buying it.”

“I’m serious, Keith.”

“Dude, you don’t have to try to make me feel better. We’re past that.”

“Keith.” Lance stares Keith straight in the eyes with a blank expression and a blush spreading across his cheeks. “I’ve never had sex.”

“Like any kind of sex?”

“No.”

“For religious purposes?”

“No.”

Keith quirks his eyebrows, not sure where this was going.

“I haven’t been sleeping with all the people I’ve dated because I was never sexually attracted to them. I liked them personally and romantically, but I never felt the urge to do anything past kissing or cuddling. Maybe chilling out shirtless with the guys since it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Wait.” Keith puts down the taco he was now eating. “You’re gay?”

“Bi, baby. Keep up.”

“You’re bi and a virgin.” Keith repeats back to him. “Why are you telling me this again?”

“Well,” the blush on Lance’s face expands and burns his cheeks, “I’ve never experienced sexual attraction until recently.”

Keith stares at him blankly. “Congrats. You didn’t tell me you were dating someone.”

“I’m not dating them. They have no clue I even like them. Hell, I didn’t realize I liked them until today even though it’s been so obvious. They’re so oblivious, though. They probably have no idea.”

“They?” Keith frowns before staring past Lance like he does in class when he wants the conversation to change. “Is it Pidge then?”

“What?” Lance’s head shoots back, indignant. “It is not that gremlin!” He shudders at the thought. “They’re a he and, as I thought, they’re oblivious.”

“They. He. What?” Keith croaks out.

“See? Utterly oblivious.” Lance grabs his drink and stands up. “I’ll see you around then, Mullet.”

**. . .**

Lance turns his phone off and wanders aimlessly until it’s ten, so he can head home without fear of interrupting Hunk and Shay doing unspeakable things. He goes straight to his room when he gets there and falls face first into his bed.

“Stupid. Stupid. Why did you do that? He’s clearly not interested and he sure as hell isn’t interested in someone who doesn’t know if they’d even like sex. Why would you say that after he admitted to having lots of one-night stands? Are you a masochist?”

He knocks his head against the bed a few times before letting himself start to drift off.

What feels like seconds later, rattling at his doorknob pulls him out of sleep.

“Go away, Hunk. I’m not in the mood.” He groans.

The rattling continues any way and the door creaks open to reveal Pidge with tools in hand to unlock the door and Keith still in his work uniform standing behind them.

“What the hell?” Lance squints at them, not sure if he’s having some sort of freaky dream or if the gremlin and Keith just broke into his room.

Pidge gives a shit eating grin and stands up. “How’s that for gremlin, Leonardo?” They stick their tongue out at Lance before turning to Keith. “Have fun~”

“Thanks, Pidge.” Keith grunts before entering Lance’s room and shutting the door. He leans against the door, either unsure if he should get any closer or blocking the only exit.

“What do you want?” Lance huffs before rolling over so he back was facing Keith.

“It, uh, it’s me, right? The person you like? The first person you’ve been attracted to?”

“Did you come to laugh at me? Come to call me impotent again?”

“No, Lance, I-“

“Want to rub how many sexual partners you’ve had in my nose?”

“Is that really what you think of me? You think I’m that petty? I thought we were friends.”

“Fake friends.”

“No, we’re not.”

“That’s what you’ve always said.”

“Yeah, but we just had dinner together and now I’ve broken into your room. That’s totally friend things whether you like it or not.”

Lance groans again, hating his own logic being thrown back at him. “Why are you here then, mullet?”

There’s silence and then a dip in the bed beside Lance. “You know, I thought you were annoying the first time we met.”

“Thanks, asshole.”

“Then you spoke and I knew how annoying you were.”

“Keep tearing me down. There’s knives in the kitchen if it helps.”

“Shut up and listen, you moron.” Keith growls. “Your annoying self kept bugging me and bugging me until you stopped being so annoying. We went from fake friends to real friends before I could even realize it. Then, before I was aware of it again, I started to enjoy when you’d call me babe by accident or were too affectionate.”

“You what?”

“I’m saying I like you, Lance.”

Lance still has his back turned to Keith, but he’d bet Hunk’s existence that Keith just rolled his eyes at him.

“Well, we are friends. You should like your friends.”

“You little shit.” Keith grabs one of Lance’s ears and straddles him, pushing him onto his back. “I confess to you and now you blow me off? What kind of crap is that?”

“I don’t need your sympathy confession!” Lance shouts back at him.

“Symp-! Sympathy confession?” Keith roars back. “What the hell is a sympathy confession? I don’t have time or the energy to break into your apartment and give fake confessions!”

“Wait.” Lance’s eyebrows furrow. “You broke into my apartment?”

“No, uh.” He looks away from Lance and stares at the wall. “Not technically. Pidge did. I just followed them.”

Lance tries to hold back laughter but snorts and ends up laughing anyway. Keith huffs and crosses his arms.

“Keith, babe. That’s great.” Lance tries to calm down and wipes tears from his eyes. When he’s finally calm enough, he runs his hands over Keith’s crossed arms. “Yeah, it’s you.” He gives a soft grin. “But you heard what I said earlier, right? I’ve never been attracted to anyone before. I don’t know if I’d be able to have sex with you. Like, ever.”

Keith rolls his eyes again and uncrosses his arms. He takes both of Lance’s hands and places one on his face and the other on his heart. “Feel my heart beat. I don’t like you for all the sex we haven’t been having. Honestly, I’m not sure why I even like you in the first place, but here I am breaking into apartments in the middle of the night making sure you stop misunderstanding my surprise.”

“There’s no way you’re that oblivious.”

“I’ve never had real friends before, McClain. I don’t know where the affection and communication boundaries are. I just thought you were being extra friendly.”

Lance snorts again and shakes his head at Keith. He moves both his hands to Keith’s face and pulls him closer. “Come here. I want to kiss your stupid mullet face.”

“You’ll have to shut that annoying mouth of yours first.” Keith smirks against Lance’s lips.

**Author's Note:**

> One of my friends: You have the prettiest blue eyes. They'd be perfect for plucking out and making into earrings.  
> Me, shifting around uncomfortably: Oh. Uh. I'll put them in my will for you?
> 
> Also: Don't whip your children. Ever.
> 
> Sympathy confessions and comfort holds are the same energy, tbh.
> 
> [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/oopsthisisqueertoo) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/oops_its_KiriBo)


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